Session Description
Impact assessment has matured over five decades into a global professional field, yet the education that sustains it has received little systematic attention. While practice evolves rapidly (digitalization and AI, climate and biodiversity integration, Indigenous and local knowledge, meaningful participation), we know little about how universities and training programs are preparing the next generation of practitioners, or whether curricula reflect the competencies practice now demands.
Echoing the IAIA27 theme, Ka mua, ka muri, this session looks back at how IA education was built to ask how it should be reimagined, around three questions. What should we preserve: the foundations and core concepts that remain essential? What should we transform: content, pedagogies, and delivery models that no longer match professional realities? What should we build: new competencies, tools, and institutional arrangements for frontier challenges?
We invite empirical and conceptual contributions: mappings of IA curricula at institutional, national, or regional level; surveys of educators, students, and practitioners on competencies and skill gaps; evaluations of pedagogical innovations; analyses of continuing professional development and academia-practice pathways; and perspectives from all regions, with special interest in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the wider Global South.
The session will feature 4-5 papers plus a facilitated discussion synthesizing the three questions. Expected outcomes: a comparative picture of IA education across regions, a shared research agenda, and the seed of an international network of IA educators.
Session Summary
How should we teach impact assessment for its next 50 years? This session asks what education in the field must preserve, transform, and build, sharing curriculum mappings, surveys, and pedagogical innovations from around the world to set a research agenda and grow a global network of educators.
Additional Information
This proposal continues the IAIA26 session "Breaking the Academic Silence in LATAM: Communicating Environmental Assessment" (G1. Academia), which worked very well in Canada: it generated rich discussion and consolidated a growing network of Latin American researchers and practitioners around IA education. IAIA27 broadens the scope from communication competencies to IA education as a whole, scaling toward an international comparative agenda open to all regions. Both chairs bring complementary experience from Chile and Peru.
Session Chair
Kay Bergamini
Instituto de Estudios Urbanos y Territoriales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Chile
Session Co-chair
Johanna Poggi Dávila
Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL)
Peru